Fans view: Promising Blades star needs better service

At the moment it’s hard to see how and where this Sheffield United team might improve.

The players don’t seem to be performing below their potential, with scope to get better, which is rather worrying. Neither is anybody playing particularly poorly and you know their form will pick up in the next few games.

It appears that what we are seeing now is how it will stay for the foreseeable future. At Bradford, United were in the game a lot more than they were at Brentford, but then again Bradford weren’t as good as Brentford. But they were still better than us.

David Weir said, probably correctly, that Nahki Wells was the difference between the two sides, but Blades fans did not expect to be on a par with a newly promoted team, who just happen to have an in-form striker destined for greater things.

United play a lot of neat football and have players who can pass the ball well but poor Lyle Taylor must be wondering what he has let himself in for. I never saw Falkirk play last season, but I would expect he was served with the ball in dangerous positions so he could have a shot. He has not been offered a decent chance yet, and any shots he has had he has had to create the opportunity for himself.

We have now seen four different players in the ‘Kevin McDonald role’ since he left, and none of them can do it.

United looked a lot more dangerous at Bradford when youngster Joe Ironside came on and Ryan Flynn and Jamie Murphy played wide in the 4-4-2 formation most players at League One level are used to.

So is it time to ditch fancy formations and a floating ‘No.10’ and go back to basics? I think most United fans prefer to see two wingers and two strikers, and it seems to me that the players in the squad are more suited to playing that old-fashioned way.